RyanNichols

Advisor to the Office of Water and Science

Advisor to the Office of Water and Science at the Department of the Interior

Since February 2017, Ryan Nichols has worked as an advisor to the Office of Water and Science in the Department of the Interior. The Office of Water and Science “oversees… the US Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation.”

Before joining Donald Trump’s Department of Interior, Ryan Nichols worked at a “prominent college campus-based hub of the climate denial machine” and on the political campaigns of Republicans running for office in Virginia. For the past five years, Nichols has worked for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that has taken in millions from Chevron, ExxonMobil, and the “family foundations of the oil billionaire Koch brothers.”

Special Interests

Federalism In Action (Political Extremism)

While at Heritage, Nichols co-organized a Western lands management event with Federalism in Action, a group affiliated with organizations funded by the Koch brothers that has fought for the transfer of federal lands to the states.

Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (Resource Development on Public Lands)

Texas Public Policy Foundation (Resource Development on Public Lands)

While at Heritage, Nichols co-hosted an energy event with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a think tank funded by oil interests including the Koch brothers, TXU Energy, Oncor, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Devon Energy, and ConocoPhillips.

For more than five years, Ryan Nichols worked for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that has taken in millions from Chevron, ExxonMobil, and the “family foundations of the oil billionaire Koch brothers.”

Heritage’s board and trustee members include private equity and venture capital financiers, a managing director of Morgan Stanley, and the President & CEO of Forbes.

From 2011 to 2017, Ryan Nichols served “as an associate director for the Republican Party-allied think-tank, the Heritage Foundation, which has a federal budget blueprint already borrowed by the Trump administration and another plan recently released for Sec. Perry and the Department of Energy.”

“The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that has received almost $800,000 from ExxonMobil and millions from the family foundations of the oil billionaire Koch brothers. Heritage claims that the impacts of man-made climate change are a matter of ‘personal opinions’ and the Clean Power Plan poses serious ‘threats.'”

Thomas Saunders, the Chairman of the Heritage Foundation founded “Saunders Karp & Megrue, a private equity firm, in 1990.” He previously “served as a managing director of Morgan Stanley & Co. from 1974 to 1989.”

At the Heritage Foundation, Ryan Nichols organized “Western lands management” events with Federalism in Action (FIA) and an “Energy & Climate Policy Summit” with the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF).

FIA is affiliated with “organizations funded by the Koch brothers and other donors pushing right-wing causes” and TPPF is a right-wing think tank bankrolled by big oil.

While at the Heritage Foundation, Ryan Nichols “co-organized with Federalism in Action a nationally televised event and a coalition strategy meeting on the issue of Western lands management with the Utah Speaker and 26 other influential leaders” with Federalism in Action, “co-hosted the 2016 Crossroads Energy & Climate Policy Summit” with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and helped organize “annual environmental symposiums.”

[Department of the Interior, FOIA Response, 06/07/17]

Federalism in Action is a “South Carolina-based group affiliated with organizations funded by the Koch brothers and other donors pushing right-wing causes” and has fought for the transfer of federal lands to the states.